Churches Taking Back the Task of Theological Education
Published on 3/13/2012
Sojourn Community Church, Louisville, KY, is developing a training model that Lead Pastor Daniel Montgomery (above) thinks will address the “mutt theology” he sees among aspiring church planters and ministry leaders in the U.S.
“Too many pastors and church planters practice a ‘mutt theology’ of gleaning here and there—a bit of Tim Keller, of Francis Chan, of David Platt, of Mark Driscoll,” Daniel says. “We recognized that one of the things missing in training church leaders is a community of practical and intellectual virtue. Sure there’s a place for the classroom, but learning is best done in residence in the church.”
In 2011, the church launched a one-year “Pastor's School” as part of a residency where potential church planters attend intensive classes and serve as ministry leaders. Pastor's School meets weekly, and the primary teacher is always a Sojourn pastor. The other training components focus on service in the local church. Each student must volunteer at least 5 hours a week in church ministry. The program will soon become a fully accredited, church-based theological education. Until then, Sojourn has negotiated with nearby Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY for 30 hours of Master of Divinity credits to be completed while serving in the church.
Sojourn is applying its model to church planters coming out of its Sojourn Network, and partnering with Southern Seminary to place church planting students in cities where they are called and that are a strong fit for them and their teams—many of which have also been equipped with a theological foundation at Sojourn.
“We want to plug it into a local church,” Daniel says “We made a shift from a teaching model to a training model to a competency model to a placement model. It changes the scorecard—we accept those we can place. It will be the first theological institution that invests up to 3 years in someone and then also places them.”
Sojourn is one example of churches that are hearkening back to the days of early American congregations, where theological education and ministry training were centered in the local church, and seminaries were created to fill in the gaps that churches couldn’t. Now, after decades of denominations taking center stage for developing doctrine and practice, we see an in increasing number of churches that are taking back the responsibility for laying a theological foundation.
What Sojourn is doing represents a rising, innovative trend that takes theological training to the church. Larger, growing churches are becoming hubs of education for people in ministry, and seminaries are partnering with these churches.
“The seminaries need these types of churches because they are doing a lot to support theological education, and you don’t have to move away from the ministry of your church to get theologically trained”, Daniel says.
Sojourn recently launched two church plants with leaders who completed yearlong residencies at a Sojourn Network church. Trent Chambers, who started a Sojourn Woodstock, Woodstock, GA, and Rusty McKie, who planted Sojourn Chattanooga in Chattanooga, TN, were assessed, monitored and mentored by senior leaders during the residency period; both also developed teams of ministry partners who moved with them to their new mission fields.
Above: A group of leaders in discussion at Pastor's School.
“We are confident both of these men are called by God and ready to plant a church and we are eager to walk alongside of them as they begin to plant,” Daniel Montgomery said. “Both our confidence and excitement came as a result of their residencies.”
Rusty McKie came to Louisville in 2007 from his native South Carolina both to attend Southern Seminary, where he earned a Master of Divinity degree, and to work at Sojourn—which he had read about in a book on missional churches. He started from the ground up with parking-lot duty at Sojourn, and then later became a community group leader and eventually a coach for other community group leaders.
“We want to see how he works with the poor, how he works with men, how he works with women, to see the dynamics with his wife and children,” Daniel was quoted as saying by the Louisville Courier-Journal newspaper. “It was difficult to determine his [or anyone’s] readiness to start a church based on a three-hour interview.”
Sojourn’s goal is to provide a prototype for the seminary they’ve partnered with and for other schools and churches. Their dream is that potential church planters and ministry leaders could earn anything from a ministry certificate to a Ph.D.—all from a church setting. “Eventually church planting networks have to deal with theological education,” Daniel says. Indeed Sojourn is pioneering new ways to do so.
Warren Bird, Ph.D., research director at Leadership Network, is a former pastor and seminary professor, and is author or co-author of 24 books for ministry leaders, the most recent one with Jim Tomberlin: Better Together: Making Church Mergers Work. Some of Warren’s recent online reports include “The Heartbeat of Rising Influence Churches,” “Pastors Who Are Shaping the Future” and “A New Decade of Megachurches.” Follow him on Twitter @warrenbird.
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Comments
This is very similar to what we are developing at Transformation Church. The integration of theological training in the context of real pastoral ministry is vital to cultivating effective pastors.
Bravo!
I’ve got to think this is the most productive model. Divorcing training from the church will always lead to unhealthy and unhelpful disconnects. Marrying the two again will allow for the best of both worlds. Robust education rooted in experience.
I am both an elder at Sojourn Church and a professor of Christian Theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary(SBTS). As such, I recently taught a regular seminary core theology course—Systematic Theology 3 (covering the doctrines of the Holy Spirit, salvation, the church, and the last things)—on site at Sojourn for twenty of its members. The experience was remarkable for me, because (1) I intimately know Sojourn Church and could direct my comments to this one church, and (2) all application from lectures and discussions could be made to this one church. For example, as we considered the gifts of the Holy Spirit, we could discuss how they function at Sojourn Church; when we treated church discipline, we could discuss how the process works at Sojourn Church; when we debated how a plurality of elders works within a multisite church, we could address the reality of the eldership structure at the four campuses of Sojourn Church. For decades churches and seminaries have dreamed about church-based theological education, and I sense what is occuring between Sojourn Church and SBTS is part of the realization of that long-developing vision.
Theological education has been effective at preparing students to lead the church the way it has been done in the past. However, many seminary graduates are not prepared to lead the modern church. Most every other professional program utilizes practitioners in the educational process. This is a giant step in the right direction.
While I gladly applaud what Sojourn Church is doing with Southern Seminary, this is definitely not “the first theological institution to invest 3 years in someone and then also place them.” Twenty years ago, The Chapel in Akron, Ohio created a 3-year program through which many men and women earn theological degrees from Trinity International University (IL) by taking their classes through Trinity’s Akron extension site and serving as pastors (in training) for 15-30 hours/week. As their skills grow, their leadership responsibilities in the church increase—and many have gone on to plant and/or pastor churches and lead faith-based organizations around the world. The Sojourn leaders are right: this plan WORKS—but it isn’t new! It’s a win for everyone: students, seminary, and perhaps especially the local church where these gifted men and women lead ministries as they learn and prepare.
Right on Polly. As a graduate of the Akron program I found it very effective and powerful for my future ministry. Daniel and Sojourn are great guys and committed to theological training in the local church. I hope more churches follow this lead and truly invest in future church leaders!
Yes, good stuff. And I agree with Polly and Mike about the Trinity program—absolutely key to my own understanding of the Bible, ability to teach and minister. More churches need to take theological training more seriously. It truly is an investment…it takes time to implement and execute well, but is well worth it. Good to see other churches catching on to this.
Pastor Adam Barton
Akron, Ohio
Can’t wait to see what you come up with!
I was the Associate Dean for TEDS in the mid 1990s providing oversight for the program led by The Chapel in Akron. It does sound similar to what Sojourn Church is doing now. It was the closest I have seen to being a truly church-based theological education program of a traditional seminary, but it was still laden with many aspects of church-housed theological seminary.
Our Antioch School of Church Planting and Leadership Development is truly church-based and competency-based. Trust me. I’ve paid attention to everything done in the name of church-based theological education for 20+ years. What Sojourn Church is doing is really good, but far from what we are doing through the Antioch School.
This is exactly what I went through before I launched out to plant a church mysel. I was given hands on training with a seasoned church planter who also trained us Theologically. By the time I did go to a formal Bible College I knew as much as if not more than what was being presented at bachelors level. This fits far more accurately with the New Testament model of raising up leaders.
I am thrilled to read about it and pray it catches on because we need more leaders who can be academics and yet practical at the same time.
This is fantastic and without question what the church today needs so desparately. I have been advocating this for some time and applaud those who pioneer. We are trying to do this in Canada through Okanagan Bible College (www.okanaganbiblecollege.ca)
I have been looking into the meidfinld that is church worship and the relation of copyright on songs. At present it is clear that many churches are failing in the copyright laws that govern performancers and writers of music/songs. I am at present puting together a youth chorus book (just lyrics not sheet music) for the church in the UK and finding it really diffecult to get the license right that I need to produce the book (never mind the linces rights for people that will sing it). I also came across this comment/law regarding performaces of church songsRobert Nieves, marketing administrator for BMI, the Copyright Law makes provisions for the exemption of churches for public performances of music in the course of religious services at a place of worship.’ Any sugestions?
This is really good. Minor thought… just wondering about how the accreditation works and the requirements for it. If other churches were to follow this path, do they need to have PhDs on staff to be accredited?
I read the book Our home is Like a Little Church to my granddaughter. She rllaey seemed to listen intently. It even caused this 4 year old to ask what sin is and allowed me to talk about pleasing Jesus. The illustrations are darling. She decided each one represented someone in her family and of course one of them looked like her.I think this book would be a great encouragement to parents who value making Jesus a part of their home.